First, a general refrigerator and a dispenser installed therein will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, water supplied from a water supply source such as a tap is filtrated at a filtration unit 1 through a pipe Pa, and then is supplied to a valve 2 connected to the filtration unit 1.
The valve 2 has two discharging holes through which water is selectively blown. One discharging hole of the valve 2 supplies water to an ice machine 6 through a pipe Pc, and the other discharging hole supplies water to a reservoir 3 through a pipe Pd. Accordingly, a constant level of water is always stored in the reservoir 3, and it can be supplied to a discharging part 5 through a pipe Pe. Here, the reservoir 3 is generally installed inside the cold-storage room so as to cool the stored water, and the discharging part 5 is installed, for instance, in front of a door 4 (ex, the door of the freezer). This dispenser allows a user to be given fresh water from the refrigerator.
This general refrigerator, however, has the following drawbacks.
Since the reservoir 3 is installed inside the cold-storage room, usage space inside the cold-storage room substantially decreases as much.
Also, since the reservoir 3 and the discharging part 5 are separated from each other, the pipe P3 connected between them should be extended long, and a part of the pipe P3 is indispensably placed outside the refrigerator. Accordingly, temperature of the water stored in that portion is substantially the same as that of the outside air in that portion that is higher than the temperature of the interior of the cold-storage room. As a result, if a user discharges water through the discharging part 5 at an initial stage, the water stored in a part of the pipe Pe at the room temperature is discharged instead of cold water stored in the reservoir 3.